my-PV products at ESW – Energy Smart Water’s test facility

Vaughan Bishop (Sustainable Systems Engineer at ESW):

We have 5 x ROTEX 500L tanks each with a different heat source connected to show the range of products we have available. The system has a manifold and pump arrangement that allows us to take cold water from a buffer tank and draw energy from each unit simultaneously. We can then have all 5 tanks at an equal state of charge and compare the recovery rate of the various heat sources throughout the day. It also supplies the hydronic heating and domestic hot water for our facility.

It is great for us to not only show off the advantages of the my-PV and ROTEX products, but also teach industry representatives and the public about renewable energy and thermal storage.

We also have a 30kW PV array and 30kWh salt water battery bank to power the office and factory and currently working on a solution to have all the data from our energy production and consumption visible on a single online platform.

Conclusion / Summary

With the data available from the my-PV products we can clearly see how well they perform. We regularly see the my-PV systems reach maximum storage temperatures in the ROTEX tanks before the solar thermal collectors do. This is thanks to the linear power control and the fact that the my-PV systems don’t require a temperature differential to start heating water. Because of the unpressurised design of the ROTEX thermal storage we can charge the thermal batteries to 85°C and maximise the solar PV self-consumption.